


Fire Walk with Me

by MrBabaYaga



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 02:31:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21129311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrBabaYaga/pseuds/MrBabaYaga
Summary: A nice, plotty, slow burn Promare AU. A learning to love and be loved fic.





	Fire Walk with Me

The final Burnish attack on what would later come to be known as Promepolis had resulted in such an immense level of devastation, that the city had been paralyzed. With most mass transit systems shut down and no way out of Promepolis, rescue teams had to be flown in from around the globe to help put out the blaze. Following this attack the anti-Burnish movement was on the rise, and spread with a fury across the nation. 

After the final battle of the Great World Blaze, a leadership summit created The Burnish Laws to exercise governmental control over the newly mutated pyrokinetic portion of the population. 

Most Burnish were granted only a slight advantage with their pyrokinetic abilities, the mutation was different with each person. Some were weaker, simply warming their chilled cups of coffee in the morning and their cold blankets in the evening. While others could decimate whole cities with the powerful flames they wielded, rebelling against the laws put in place to keep them from having equal civil rights. 

The Burnish laws were repulsive, yet with very little representation in the government, there was not much that could be changed. Bigoted humans were unfortunately the majority in the current climate, a collection of people fueled by their fears and prejudices. Like the Burnish they looked like everyday people, but inside they were people who thought it best to strike first, kill or be killed by the Burnish. 

Most normal humans didn’t mind coexistence, and some even fought for the Burnish. There were protests and rallies, riots in the larger cities as the Burnish and their allies pushed back against hate groups who found the Burnish appalling. These groups had many names, but Freeze Force was among the worst, spreading propaganda that the Burnish were abominations, cursed to roam and ruin the earth until the day it all turned to ash. 

The group had spent years developing methods to extinguish Burnish fires, some resulting in cases of mass murder without bodies remaining to prove there ever was a crime. It was a cycle of ruin, which saw no peaceful resolution on the horizon. The Burnish and their anti-counterparts were striking vipers, vicious in their attempts to destroy the other. 

Burnish communities weren’t common on the coast lines of civilization, but the further you found yourself landlocked in areas of sprawling open country, the more they appeared. On long roadtrips, you could drive through one or two without even knowing. Most were farming communities or small towns where Burnish knew they could be left in peace, a few even growing into minor metropolitan areas, but nothing as extravagant as their normal human counterparts dared to build. 

They were treasured safe havens, until they weren’t. 

-

_Twenty Years After The Great Blaze_

Lio cupped the handful of seeds close to his chest, following behind his mother as she made small indents in the soil for each of them. He sank to his knees, tiny fingers trying so desperately to place only one seed in the ground at a time. 

“Lio, I could hold them for you.” 

The eight-year-old shook his head, continuing his work while his mother watched with amusement. Lio was a determined child, doing well in school and following behind his mother when they were home; always looking for a way to be helpful. 

They had shared a bedroom since his powers had manifested, the blond was terrified...or maybe humiliated to return to the charred remains of his old room. But his mother never dared to bring it up, or even open the door to the blackened chamber. 

“Well be careful, Lio. If you focus too hard you might dry out the seeds.”

The blond looked up with a panic, holding out his small collection to his mother with a frown. “Please take them.” 

His mother’s guilt was instantaneous, but the blond seemed to not be too bothered by the statement. Lio took one at a time, burying each with the freshly uncovered earth. 

“I don’t mean to burn things.”

“I know, sweetheart,” his mother said softly. “I just wanted to make sure your sunflowers had a good start in our garden. I know you’ll take good care of them once they get-”

She turned sharply at the sound. A loud popping? A firework? 

“Stay here, Lio.” 

The blond watched his mother round the side of the house, disappearing as the screaming got louder. More voices joined in, distant shouting and more loud pops rang out. Lio’s mother found her answer quickly as the sounds of screams from a neighboring house filled the once quiet summer air. She returned quickly, grabbing Lio, pulling him up and into her arms as she took off into the field behind their house. 

She held him close as she ran through the tall grass. The thick blades slapping against her face as she hurried. She could hear gunshots and terrified screams from behind her as she ran. She kept her hand on the back of Lio’s head, pushing her child’s face into her shoulder as her chest burned with each breath she took. She had never considered herself fast, but knew that if she stopped to catch her breath it would be over for both of them. 

When she cleared the grass she saw the house. She knew an older Burnish man lived there, but as she climbed the front porch to knock on his door she discovered it was open. She turned to see his car speeding away, tears of frustration running down her cheeks until another vehicle appeared from seemingly nowhere and ran the driver off the road. The car rolled into a ditch as another vehicle joined the second. 

Lio’s mother ushered him to the edge of the porch, pleading with her son to crawl under as quickly as he could, while she stared out into the tall grass. The blond could smell smoke, and fire that was similar to the abilities that he possessed. Lio briefly caught a glimpse of flames in the distance, but disappeared under the old wood as his mother begged him to go faster. 

The blond was too afraid of how loud the shouting was getting to notice the other creatures that lurked under the deck. His heart was pounding as he crawled and kept looking behind to see if his mother was following him. But it didn’t take long for him to figure out she was going to join him. Lio could hear his mother whispering to him as he climbed further under the deck, hiding in the very middle as he tried to avoid detection. 

“Keep to your own kind, baby. Keep yourself alive, Lio.”

The blond curled up on his side and closed his eyes tightly, covering his mouth with his shirt as he cried. He needed to be quiet. Maybe if he was quiet the people would just go away and leave his mother alone. He could he their heavy footsteps above him, getting closer to his mother as she tried to string her words together. 

They shot her before she even had a chance to show them that they had made a mistake. Lio buried his face in the dirt to try and keep from vomiting, his stomach seizing violently as he heard the wet thud of what he assumed was his mother’s body on the porch. Blood slowly began to drip between the boards, the red highlighted by the slivers of sunlight. He could feel his fire starting to tingle along his flesh, but willed it into submission as he tried to stay unnoticed. 

“She wasn’t even Burnish,” one man said as he toed the woman’s lifeless body. “She would have disintegrated like the others, right?”

“Just throw her in the bonfire that the others are starting on the edge of town. There were apparently several humans who decided to live with these creatures.”

“Maybe she just wanted some cheap real estate,” the original remarked with a laugh.

“She had a child with her.”

“Well once I dump her in the fire, I’ll come back and check out the house.” 

They didn’t come back. Maybe the farm house was too out of the way for them to bother, but Lio didn’t consider himself lucky. 

He waited until the sun went down. Climbing out from under the porch with a wince as he checked for anyone around him. In the distance he no longer saw flames, but towering shards of ice that jutted out from the tops of the houses that made up the small neighborhood he grew up in. The air was cold, a startling thing to feel in the summer month. Small snowflakes wafted through the air, quickly melting as they touched the ground. 

He was a mess of dirt and spider webs, but he didn’t care. He didn’t hesitate once he was sure the coast was clear. The blond took off running away from the house, staying far from the road, running into the woods and deeper into the night. 

-

_Thirty Years After The Great Blaze_

Galo wasn’t used to the quiet. The emptiness in this new town, compared to Promepolis, was startling as he lay awake at night counting the water spots on the ceiling. The firehouse was still in the late evening hours, and even though he shared a room with two other people the soft background noise was nothing like he was used to back home. Nothing but the occasional snore from Varys or creaking of an old bed frame as Remi tossed in his sleep to try and fill the empty air. Galo needed more energy; needed to feel the buzzing of life around him to find some sense of ease. 

Sleeping in a town like Innestowe was going to be difficult. 

This wasn’t what Galo had imagined his career would look like after graduation from the academy. He had been excited for a city assignment, a challenging job where he worked to put out the fires set by the rogue Burnish that chose to live in the slums around Promepolis. They were Burnish who still rebelled against their oppression, and even though Galo didn’t agree with how they were treated, he was devoted to his career as a firefighter. But there were times he couldn’t shake the bitterness that clung to him since the accidental death of his family in a Burnish attack; however, he knew that making sweeping generalizations never made anyone look good. He would save anyone from a fire, Burnish or not. 

Yet here he was now, a rookie in a small town miles from any of the action he had been waiting to jump into. He was disappointed, but figured staying positive was his best option as he turned to face the wall and started counting the unpatched nail holes. Boredom would have to put him to sleep eventually, or maybe he would just invest in a good pair of headphones after his first payday.


End file.
